Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets Spaniel'd is so happy a conjecture, that I think we ought to acquiesce in it. It is of some weight with me that spaniel was often formerly written spannel. Hence there is only the omission of the first letter, which has happened elsewhere in our poet, as in the word chear, &c. To dog them at the heels is not an uncommon expression in Shakspeare; and in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act II. sc. ii. Helena says to Deme trius: "I am your spaniel,-only 'give me leave, "Unworthy as I am, to follow you." TOLLET. Spannel for spaniel is yet the inaccurate pronunciation of some persons, above the vulgar in rank, though not in literature. Our author has in like manner used the substantive page as a verb in Timon of Athens: 66 -Will these moist trees "That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels," &c. In King Richard III. we have "Death and destruction dog thee at the heels." MALONE. this grave charm,] I know not by what authority, nor for what reason, this grave charm, which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editions changed to this gay charm. By this grave charm, is meant, this sublime, this majestick beauty. JOHNSON. I believe grave charm means only deadly, or destructive piece of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet grave is often used by Chapman, in his translation of Homer. So, in the 19th Book: 66 -but not far hence the fatal minutes are "Of thy grave ruin.” Again, in the same translator's version of the 22d Odyssey: and then flew 66 "Minerva, after every dart, and made "Some strike the threshold, some the walls invade; It seems to be employed in the sense of the Latin word gravis. STEEVENS. Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home; Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,' 1 was my crownet, my chief end,] Dr. Johnson supposes that crownet means last purpose, probably from finis coronat opus. Chapman, in his translation of the second Book of Homer, uses crown in the sense which my learned coadjutor would recommend: 66 all things have their crowne." Again, in our author's Cymbeline: "My supreme crown of grief." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse, See Vol. XV. p. 353, n. 9. STEEvens. So, again, in All's well that ends well : "All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown.” C. Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose, Beguil'd me &c.] There is a kind of pun in this passage, arising from the corruption of the word Ægyptian into gipsy. The old law-books term such persons as ramble about the country, and pretend skill in palmistry and fortune-telling, Ægyp tians. Fast and loose is a term to signify a cheating game, of which the following is a description. A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever should thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends, and draw it away. This trick is now known to the common people, by the name of pricking at the belt or girdle, and perhaps was practised by the Gypsies in the time of Shakspeare. SIR J. HAWKINS. Sir John Hawkins's supposition is confirmed by the following Epigram in an ancient collection called Run and a great Cast, by Thomas Freeman, 1614: CLEO. Why is Enter CLEOPATRA. Ah, thou spell! Avaunt. my lord enrag'd against his love? ANT. Vanish; or I shall give thee thy deserving, And blemish Cæsar's triumph. Let him take thee, And hoist thee up to the shouting Plebeians: Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown For poor'st diminutives, to dolts ; and let "In Egyptum suspensum. Epig. 95. "Charles the Egyptian, who by jugling could Surely it seem'd he was not his craft's master, "Had you been there, but to have seen the cast, STEEVENS. That the Egyptians were great adepts in this art before Shakspeare's time, may be seen in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 336, where these practices are fully explained. REED. heart of loss.] To the utmost loss possible. 3 to the very So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor : JOHNSON. “Here is the heart of my purpose." STEEVENS. -most monster-like, be shown For poor'st diminutives, to dolts ;] [Old copy-for dolts;] As the allusion here is to monsters carried about in shows, it is plain, that the words, for poorest diminutives, must mean for the least piece of money. We must therefore read the next word: -for doits, i. e. farthings, which shows what he means by poorest diminutives. WARBURTON. Patient Octavia plough thy visage up With her prepared nails.5 [Exit CLEO.] 'Tis well thou'rt gone, If it be well to live: But better 'twere Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o'the moon; There was surely no occasion for the poet to shew what he meant by poorest diminutives. The expression is clear enough, and certainly acquires no additional force from the explanation. I rather believe we should read: For poor'st diminutives, to dolts ; This aggravates the contempt of her supposed situation; to be shown, as monsters are, not only for the smallest piece of money, but to the most stupid and vulgar spectators. TYRWHITT. I have adopted this truly sensible emendation. STEEVENS. It appears to me much more probable that dolts should have been printed for doits, than that for should have been substituted for to. Whichsoever of these emendations be admitted, there is still a difficulty. Though monsters are shown to the stupid and the vulgar for poor'st diminutives, yet Cleopatra, according to Antony's supposition, would certainly be exhibited to the Roman populace for nothing. Nor can it be said that he means that she would be exhibited gratis, as monsters are shown for small pieces of money; because his words are "monster-like," be [thou] shown for poor'st diminutives, &c. The following passage in Troilus and Cressida adds some support to my conjecture: "How this poor world is pester'd with such water-flies; diminutives of nature !" MALONE. With her prepared nails.] i. e. with nails which she suffered to grow for this purpose. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer reads thus: Led thee lodge Lichas-and- This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after having rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in my rage, becoming the successor of Hercules. JOHNSON. And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest club, Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die; To the Roman boy' she hath sold me, and I fall Under this plot: she dies for't.-Eros, ho! [Exit. This image Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o'the moon;] our poet seems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who says Lichas being launched into the air, sprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the same occasion, talks at a much soberer rate. WARburton. Shakspeare was more probably indebted to Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphosis, B. IX. edit. 1575: "Behold, as Lychas trembling in a hollow rock did lurk, "He spyed him: And as his griefe did all in furie work, "He sayd, art thou syr Lychas, he that broughtest unto mee "This plagye present? Of my death must thou the woorker bee? "Hee quaak't and shaak't and looked pale, and fearfully 'gan make "Excuse. But as with humbled hands hee kneeling too him spake, "The furious Hercule caught him up, and swindging him about "His head a halfe a doozen tymes or more, he floong him out "Into th' Euboyan sea, with force surmounting any sling; "He hardened intoo peble stone as in the ayre he hing," &c. STEEVens. 7the Roman boy-] Old copy-the young Roman boy-. See p. 220, n. 9, where a similar interpolation has been already ejected, for similar reasons. STEEVENS. |